The younger online campaign of my world, starting in northern Europe; campaign started in late 2016.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Stormy Morning in Stavanger

May 2nd is a cold day, brisk certainly, with a near gale blowing out of the south. It is strong enough to knock you off your feet today, so I'll have to rule that anyone resting can't go outside - the buffeting wind for just a 2 minute would be enough to cause physical trauma. On top of that, there is a slashing rain, as three fingers of rain (width of three fingers) falls between 6 am and noon. It is a truly awful day.

Given the weather, there is very little to hear as far as what is going on regarding the scene of the massacre. You hear that the Swedish prince and the Stavanger Burghermeister were planning on riding south with fifty men to visit the scene, but that has been put off due to the weather.

Those who might want to do some shopping may want to reconsider. The wind has been stiffening throughout the morning. It would be an hour before noon just now and there is no sign of the rain letting up.

But, if you're not worried about healing, the shops will still be open. The stockyard and the town market are closed, as those are open air markets, so you can't buy anything from those lists today. They're closed.

In other news, I have this upgraded map to offer:

Treat the white areas as unexplored or ill-defined in your memories. Hexes are still 6.67 miles in diameter. The village to the south, near the barracks, should be named Verdalen. The name got missed.

I had told Engelhart a couple days ago that I would rather not do the map if the party might not stay in the region, and then I went ahead and started doing it after thinking it would probably be useful. I haven't used this generation scheme in so long I had to actually go back into my old posts to remember how it was done ~ and then I remembered how much fun it was to do this, so I got into it and now the map above exists. I was thinking I might do a post on the subject as well.

29 comments:

Seems like I'll be staying in, since there's no immediate need to make my purchases until just before setting out.

I'm now at -8 hp and I cast Cure Light Wounds for a further 7. I guess these will all have to go to me, unless anyone cares to drop by. This means that come the next day I'll go shopping and will start my physician's rounds with the rest of the party, starting with Embla.

Counting that Embla chooses to stay in as well, with her hit points, I'll push this up to 3 in the afternoon. The rainfall retreats a little but not much. Throughout the day, the rainfall is a total of 10mm, or 2.5 inches. It is a deluge of rain.

The near gale also continues. Yet in the mid-afternoon, there have been a string of stories that have erupted.

On the outskirts of Randeberg, west of Stavanger, sheep herds that were hiding from the storm have been slashed to pieces and been partly eaten. The carcasses look like they were cut with knives and eaten by rats. The entrails in particular were consumed, while meat on the carcasses was largely ignored.

Three different rowboats have been deliberately sunk, no one knows why. When the owners went to pull them up on shore early this morning, so that they did not fill up with water, they were found in the lake with the holes in their bottoms. The boats look like they were broken with large rocks.

Despite the storm, the guards on the towers around Stavanger have witnessed crowds of near-naked people moving in and out of the forests. Some have suggested it is a dark rain cult of some kind.

Well, this is rapidly getting out of hand. At the same time it seems downright dangerous enough that we should need to ensure that we've recuperated before setting out in search of trouble. I mean, "crowds" of barbarians are what I would call out as being out of our league for the present time.

Alexis: I deliberately refrained from naming a hero due to prefering to keep the option in my backpocket for a rainy day (heh). If possible, I'd like to keep on doing just that, for now.

Well, it's either the eight of us against one big scary uncertain thing back at the barrow, or the eight of us plus fifty more against a lot of smaller uncertain things out and about.

But since we don't have an in with the Prince beyond being audacious enough to say "mind if we tag along", the point may well be moot. If we ARE being audacious, sign me up.

Is there any way for us to find a healer in Stavanger? No local priest who's palms can be suitably greased for God? I like those salves for dungeon delving, but it seems irresponsible to burn that much gp on 1d4.

Pandred: I don't think volunteering able-bodied people to step into the breach during a crisis to require much of an in. Getting people aboard with an interest in risking getting stabbed and/or clubbed to death makes us a valued commodity in our own right.

Of course, we don't necessarily need to tag along with royalty, there ought to be multiple search parties going out.

Embla: I don't know, Alexis divvied up things himself, no idea if he accounted for shares.

I don't think that the rule can work the way you're proposing. You already know the hero you haven't chosen; it isn't as though this is future knowledge you're going to have, that you can decide upon in the future. Your knowledge right now needs to be defined, so that your future actions are in some way affected by what you know.

Now, I said it did not have to be the Prince. I suggest you think of a social role that a hero of yours would possess: a member of the church, an essayist, a politician, an adventurer, a military figure, a scholar, an artist, whatever sort of person appeals to you, and then I will create the NPC that fits with your expectation, put him in the vicinity and we will go from there.

Right, I thought you might ask me to do so, but wasn't yet too keen on grinding it through my brain.

Give me a religious figure, someone who might explain something of the world at large to us: why did Christianity ever triumph if the other Gods are equally real and solid fountainheads of power? What of the demi-humans, did they ever hew to their own pantheon or, more like the mythological originals, were they always a part of the mythos forwarded by a given religion, worshipping and created by the same divine entities?

Also, someone who can shed some light on older faiths. Ritual practices, geographic distribution, centres of power. And tie it all back in with the monster knowledge, if any of the creatures I encounter is to have any religious affinity to speak of (generation myths, in the service of a given God, etc).

Don't know if I'm asking too much, take what you can use. This is all bonus, I know I'll be happy either way.

(I like it. I would love to see the 2 mile hexes, or these six miles spread out over the entire sheet Stavanger occupies in Publisher. My tastes are simple and require more work than I would ever feel comfortable demanding from anyone. It's rad as hell.)

Let's operate on the assumption that the gold was spread out evenly, it'll be easier to tote around at the very least. As far as rewarding the followers, my plan was to upgrade their armor and go from there. Given the weather, today is looking like a rest day for me as well. Two more HP will sure be a good thing, especially if we go out looking to actively lose some fighting barbarian ghosts. Shall we put our next move to a vote, or wait to see what happens with the weather and decide on our next move after we're kitted up?

[I'm loving the map! The coins, bread, and hammers are very helpful for getting an idea of the utilisation of the land, I'm already thinking of ways we might control some hammers of our own up the fjords]

Here's some spitballing: something we did in the tomb definitely has caused an upset in the spiritual realm. Probably we'll need some kind of big-time Remove Curse spell or something, so maybe once we kill the big thing underneath (presuming it's still there, of course) maybe we ought to build a church on top of the barrow?

Alexis, three things that will come up eventually for me come market-time and so might as well get out of the way:

- There is no listed entry for Mauls, which I'm assuming ought to be available but weren't due to oversight.

- The same goes for sling bullets, which I presumed Gudbrand must have had on his person but that I've yet to find in the tables (absent from the artillerist's, wouldn't know where to look otherwise).

- Is there a table specifically for hirelings?

Lothar:

I'm still not fully convinced as to the relation between our tomb-raiding incursion and the present troubles. But regardless, these are the more pressing matters, that I as a local am obliged to pursue to the detriment of returning to the barrow just yet.

Here's a tangential, more fanciful take: we are going to be stuck with reacquiring the book we've just traded away and having to return it to its original place, all at a cost that will make the 1,000 gold pieces seem like a bargain price.

[I admit, the weather sort of surprised me. It does certainly kill a day's activities]

Engelhart, I'll work on a price for a maul and sling bullets.

At present, I do not have a table for hirelings. Creating such a list from economic resources rather than imposing something ad hoc is much harder than one might imagine ~ like other things, I await inspiration. It, like all things, will come. In the meantime, I tend to handle these things on a case by case basis, which is still ad hoc but lacks the sense of a fixed, unchangeable rule.

Let me know what sort of hireling you want and we will settle on a price. The method/cost for hiring will still be that of the method I dreamed up some months ago for hiring mercenaries.

Oh, and I made a mistake. May the 1st, yesterday, was a Sunday. Let's please just take it as written that the cleric and the party attended Church yesterday. I won't take that as challenging rest, either. I think the religious fervor can be seen as counteracting the effort.

[Do understand. At present, Arvid Hagen does not even know that Engelhart exists. They are not friends or acquaintances: Hagen just happens to be someone the Engelhart knows very well, right down to his home address, if he cared to find him. But actually finding him or building an association, that is still up to the cleric.

The followers don't get a share of x.p. from the treasure, because it is not their treasure.

Once again, please, stop worrying about the followers. They are paid, they've shown no sign of discontent. Bergthora has hit 400 x.p. and therefore has enough to be trained; she may seek an opportunity with someone who has training ability, but that is a morale check that has yet to be made. She can't gain more x.p. at this time anyway.

If you give the hirelings enough of the treasure to all hit 400 x.p., they'll all roll to see if they don't have enough money to quit and start other interests of their own.